Commercial dry cleaning systems currently employ potentially toxic and environmentally harmful halocarbon solvents, such as perchloroethylene. Carbon dioxide has been proposed as an alternative to such systems in U.S. Pat. No. 4,012, 194 to Maffei.
German Patent Application DE3904514 A1 of Schollmeyer, published Aug. 23, 1990, describes a cleaning system combining various conventional anionic or nonionic surface active agents with supercritical CO.sub.2. The system described therein appears to combine the detergency mechanism of conventional surface active agents with the solvent power of supercritical fluid carbon dioxide. A carbon dioxide dry cleaning system effective for liquid carbon dioxide is not provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,473 to Jureller et al. (see also U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,977 to Jureller et al.) describes a dry cleaning system utilizing carbon dioxide in liquid form in combination with surfactants that contain a functional moiety that is CO.sub.2 -philic, which surfactants are not conventionally used for detergent cleaning. Since there are numerous advantages to employing conventional surfactants (e.g., cost, ready availability, established regulatory approval, established toxicology, etc), it would be extremely desirable to have a dry cleaning system for liquid carbon dioxide that employs conventional surfactants that do not contain a CO.sub.2 -philic group.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,022 to Romack et al. describes dry methods and compositions for dry cleaning in liquid carbon dioxide formulations in which a conventional surfactant (i.e., one that does not contain a CO.sub.2 -philic group) is used in combination with an organic co-solvent. The conventional surfactant is soluble in the organic co-solvent. Ingredients such as bleaches, whiteners, softeners, sizing, starching, enzymes, hydrogen peroxide or a source of hydrogen peroxide, are described at column 3 lines 39-43, but recommendations for the structure or composition of ingredients that are particularly advantageous in carbon dioxide cleaning formulations, as opposed to functional statements thereof, are not provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,298 to Fulton et al. suggests methods of sizing and desizing yarn with a liquid carbon dioxide solvent for yarn processing, but does not suggest methods of sizing articles to be cleaned that can be used in a dry cleaning operation. Accordingly, there is a continued for additives or ingredients that can be advantageously employed with carbon dioxide cleaning formulations.